Mobile user equipments (UEs) are widely deployed devices used throughout the world to allow full-duplex communication between UE users and other users connected to the global telecommunications infrastructure. The types of communication applications handled by mobile UEs include voice, data, image transmission, Internet access, email, text messaging, video transmission, etc. Since mobile UEs are battery-powered, portable devices, their small form factor (i.e., small size) and weight facilitate personal mobility throughout their coverage area.
Several different access techniques may be used to enable mobile UE connectivity with base stations within wireless coverage areas. Different access technologies include frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), etc.
Mobile UEs may traverse national boundaries if the UE user undertakes international travel. That is, the mobile UE may be subject to different dialing procedures in different countries. One complication that arises with international travel is that UE users would rather not have to administer various direct dialing prefixes when they travel to foreign countries. In one example, the United States uses “011” as the international direct dialing (IDD) prefix. However, in Japan, the international direct dialing prefix is “001”. Since different countries use different dialing prefixes, the UE user would have to know and use the appropriate prefixes for each country to place calls when roaming internationally. This feature may make international roaming more complicated and confusing than desirable for the UE user. For example, storing international phone numbers in the address book of the mobile UE may be inconvenient if different dialing prefixes are needed for different countries for the same desired phone number.